The use of databases for storing information relating to classified and inventory-based information has become widely accepted. Not merely is its popularity due to its ability to provide information to professionals in the industry, but also its potential as a means of disseminating information quickly and widely by using other technologies. One such area of application relates to real estate property.
The information in a listing for a piece of property may include a number of elements, including its price, postal address, physical characteristics of the property including number and type of rooms, the realtor responsible for marketing the property, and images of the property such as photographs, videos, and even virtual tours.
All such information, or a substantial part thereof, may be provided to a person using the Internet, or other electronic communications network, for display on a computer to the person in the form of a search result. The presented information may be static, such as text or a photograph, or dynamic, such as a video stream; it may be not merely visual, but also include audio.
Various approaches have been developed for displaying such information to a user. Interactive elements may be implemented, for example, using Java or JavaScript. These are both programming languages with syntaxes similar to the C programming language. JavaScript is a client-side scripting language whereas Java is a general-purpose programming language. Java is commonly used to code “applets” which consist of Java code compiled to Java bytecode that is downloaded and executed by a web browser using the Java run-time environment. These are well suited for use, and are often used, in conjunction with back-end and server side applications
In contrast, Flash®, previously called Shockwave® Flash® and Macromedia® Flash®, is a set of multimedia technologies developed and distributed by Adobe Systems and earlier by Macromedia®. Flash® technology is a popular method for adding animation and limited interactivity to web pages but is not well suited for use in conjunction with back-end and server side applications. Flash® was designed as a vector-based web animation tool having few if any back-end or server side applications. Early versions of Flash® had very limited interactivity features and scripting ability. It was not until the release of Macromedia Flash® MX 2004 in September of 2003 that Flash® first included features such as web services integration and a scripting programming language well suited to the development of applications that interact with remote databases.
Advertising on the internet is generally impression based, the price being dependent on the number of times an advertisement is presented to a user. The current form of impression based random and interruptive advertising is time consuming, expensive and allows for significant waste in audience, engagement and media spend. Currently, ad units are targeted to individuals through these primary methods. First, Behavioral Targeting may be used, which uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited, to select which advertisements to display to that individual. There are many privacy issues surrounding Behavioural Targeting. Second, Contextual Targeting where advertisements may be used that are selected and served by automated systems based on the content displayed to the user. And third, Vertical Content specific websites may be used in which advertisements are created and placed based on the content of the site. All of these forms of advertising placement are based on a suggested behavior and not individual consumer actual intent.